Rutgers professor: Karl Rove just ‘name calling’

The Rutgers professor called out by Karl Rove for his protest of Condoleezza Rice as a commencement speaker has pushed back against the former George W. Bush adviser.

“People who don’t know the facts or have nothing substantive to say, (Mr. Rove qualifies on both counts) have nothing left but name calling,” Rutgers University professor Robert Boikess told POLITICO on Tuesday.

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“I’m certainly not personally offended because I learned a very long time ago to ‘always consider the source,’” he continued. “The senior adviser to arguably the worst president in American history is not a very reliable source.”

The professor was responding to Rove’s comments on Monday evening, during which the Fox News contributor lashed out at Boikess and others in the Rutgers community who protested Rice’s selection as a commencement speaker.

“Shame on the little totalitarians on the left and their faculty agent who perpetuated this,” the Republican strategist said on Fox News’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

The “faculty agent” mentioned by Rove was a reference to Boikess, a Rutgers University organic chemistry professor who drafted a resolution calling on the school’s administration to “rescind its misguided decision.”

The protesters took issue with Rice because of her involvement in the Bush administration during the Iraq War and when the administration admitted to using waterboarding on terror suspects. Rice served as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State during the administration.

Boikess told POLITICO that the university protests were being mischaracterized. He said that a commencement speaker must be uncontroversial because the ceremony should be a joyous experience for graduates and their families.

While Rice makes an inappropriate commencement speaker, he said, she is welcome to speak on campus any other time.

When asked what it felt like to be criticized by Rove, Boikess seemed unperturbed.

“This may increase my standing with my children,” he said. “They may think I’m more important than I thought I was.”